A comfortable fit

Direct-to-garment printers making custom T-shirt orders much easier, quicker and less expensive

By DELAWESE FULTON - ddfulton@thestate.com

Call them instant T-shirts.

No longer do you have to wait days or weeks for your custom T-shirts to be printed, and you no longer have to order a dozen more than you need.

For about $20, new industrial-size inkjet printers now allow customers to design and print their own creations in a matter of minutes. At least three local T-shirt printing shops have installed the direct-to-garment printers.

Embroid Me in Irmo has offered the service for about a year.

Its co-owner Laura Sullivan said the printer’s quick turnaround and ability to cater to individual T-shirt designs have made it a hit with small-business customers, like landscapers, who usually need only about five to 10 shirts for their staffs.

“It’s been wonderful. It has increased our sales a noticeable amount,” Sullivan said.

The $20,000 machines, the latest in apparel-printing technology, can process 40 to 60 custom T-shirts an hour, said Brian Belk, co-owner of Axiom America, a North Carolina-based distributor of the Brother International Co. printers.

It is a growing niche in the printing industry. The U.S. retail value of the direct-to-garment apparel will increase from an estimated $3 billion in 2007 to more than $12 billion by 2010, according to IT Strategies, a research and consulting firm.

In Columbia, Eat More Tees, on Rosewood Drive and Elmwood Avenue, and Thread Head Promotions, on Sunnyside Drive, offer the service.

Eat More Tees bought and installed direct-to-garment printers about a month ago.

“We get so many calls from people wanting one to two shirts,” owner Kevin Schumacher said.

Bridesmaids and families often request custom shirts to commemorate special days, persons or events, he said.

Custom screen printing makes up a third of the 16-year-old company’s business, Schumacher said.

The other two-thirds are made up of pre-printed apparel and accessories — including caps, tote bags, T-shirts and golf shirts — sold wholesale to stores throughout the state.

Before Schumacher installed the new direct-to-garment printer, a single custom T-shirt could have cost between $35 and more than $100, depending on colors printed. The shirt would have gone on a screen-printing press, and it would have taken anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes to produce.

With the new instant-shirt printer, Schumacher hopes to increase his custom printing segment to 40 percent and hit $2 million in sales total this year, he said.

One of the ideas Schumacher is pursuing is letting mothers-to-be print their ultrasounds on T-shirts.

“Basically, a see-through window to their tummies,” he said.

As more people learn about the direct-to-garment printers, they are becoming quick fans.

Columbia resident Glen Holden has used the direct-to-garment printer several times at Embroid Me. He orders custom T-shirts to advertise his mobile car repair business, Auto Doc, M.D.

Before, Holden said it would take three to four weeks to get shirt orders. Not anymore.

“Turnaround is excellent,” he said.

Reach Fulton at (803) 771-8659.